Ano Natsu de Matteru Episode 8

Over the last few days i’ve been thinking that the spring season is almost at an end. There’s more or less only a month left for every anime to either wrap up and come to an end or to get the viewers so riled up that the powers that be have to be off their rockers to not allow them a second season.

Now as you should already know I try to keep my anime list organised here http://myanimelist.net/, and one of the requirements that I have set for myself is that I rate each and every anime that I have had the pleasure of watching. This one is no different, currently it has an ongoing score of 7 but I’m strongly considering moving it up to a notch. It may not seem like much but to me it’s a big deal. The difference between a show rated 7 and one rated 8 is a hell of a jump. So now the question remains… How good is this show? Well, for one its good enough for me to be considering a 9.. And how good is that you might ask? Pretty damn good. The only thing that might make its score fall and remain as a 7 is if the producers decide to screw up the momentum as we approach the end.

This week’s episode for instance was a perfect example of why Ano Natsu de Matter deserves such a high score. We have Remon approaching Tetsurou’s older sister with a proposition, one that her busybody nature would not allow her to turn down To catalyst the ongoing struggle for love going on between each of our protagonists. To that effect we have the usual ‘test of courage’, now I believe I need not explain what that is nor what each protagonist hoped the outcome of this excursion would be (all can be inferred from image on top right).

The mission here was a complete success, Tetsurou’s sister scared the heebyjeebies out them which lead to Tetsurou falling directly on top of Mio, And as the first law of anime physics states, ‘when two protagonists of opposite sex are within close proximity of each other and one happens to fall, assuming it’s not an ecchi anime then…

...this happens

Gotta give it to Nanami and Remon, apart from the two we encountered on the Okinawa trip they have been single-handedly overseeing the progression between all the characters in our love pentagon.

Now I noticed a few interesting things in this episode..

1. Kanna has absolutely no chance with Kaito whatsoever. It actually caught me by surprise how quickly Kaito ran away leaving Kanna alone when he heard Ichika’s scream. Kaito isn’t the type to leave a young lady in a dark all by herself (he seems quite the gentleman) so for him to do that well… Kanna as well as Tetsurou knew what it meant. This also implies that even if we have the scenario later where Ichika leaves earth and so Kaito ends up with Kanna, then Kaito would not exactly be happy with the turnout and that would really suck (from a fan’s point of view at least).

2. Kaito is totally badass! This again in itself caught me offguard, Kaito saw this huge alien life-form supposedly ‘attacking’ Ichika and immediately instead of running away decides to fight for his lady (ps. in life, if you ever see an alien craft picking up one of your friends…. run). Even when Rinon came and saved him once with a tricked out space bike he still shows some mettle, takes control of the situation and after collision with the alien grabs Ichika midair to save her with his own body. At the very least, Kaito now has definite respect from me.

3. Rinon would make a badass bikerI think that one is self explanatory ><

Lastly and ironically most importantly, Ichika’s identity as an alien is pretty much exposed (at least to Kaito) there has been no confirmation as to if the other 3 saw but this time kaito definitely knows. I can barely keep still as I wait until next week to see how this turns out. Hopefully she doesn’t possess a short term memory wiper like the MIB, that’d just ruin all the fun :).

Overall I give this episode a 9/10 (highest score thus far). See you next week!